City of Miami May Be Sued for Releasing Photos of Firefighters Fired in Noose Incident

William Bryson, Kevin Meizoso, and David Rivera; from bottom left: Justin Rumbaugh, Harold Santana, Alejandro Sese, had been fired over an incident whereby someone hung a noose over a black lieutenant’s family footage inside a fire station. (Metropolis of Miami)

There are two points that incense me about this story. The first: that the city of Miami screwed up and now needs the media to not do its job. The second? That in any case thought of one in every of the alleged perpetrators of a horribly racist act seems black AF, and willingly participated on this anti-black fuckery. He possibly identifies as “Hispanic, not black” on varieties, nevertheless the person throughout the mirror says in every other case, my dude.

OK—on to the data.

After mistakenly releasing the pictures of six firefighters who had been fired over a noose incident in a firehouse, the city of Miami is demanding that media take the images down.

The Miami Herald reports that shortly after midnight on Friday, an authorized skilled for the city despatched a cease and desist letter ordering numerous retailers from exhibiting the images of the six males. The lawyer said they weren’t presupposed to have been launched.

“As former first responders, their footage are confidential and exempt beneath Florida’s public disclosure regulation and should not have been launched,” wrote metropolis authorized skilled Kevin R. Jones.

The Miami Herald then knowledgeable the city to … correctly, let’s merely say the images are nonetheless up because of that they had been legally obtained.

The photographs reference a Sept. 9 incident at Miami Fire Station 12, the place numerous firefighters are accused of taking an African American lieutenant’s family footage, drawing penises on them after which handing a thin white rope authentic proper right into a noose over thought of one in every of them.

In accordance with an earlier Herald report, the vandalism was reportedly as a consequence of “an open dialog about personal objects being neglected contained within the station that prompted Sese to complain about Webster’s footage of their dorm room.

And, as reported earlier by The Root, “it was Sese’s idea to deface the pictures, and he was the one who retrieved them. Meizoso, Rumbaugh and Santana reportedly drew lewd, phallic images on the images. Rivera reportedly returned them to their picture frames. Bryson allegedly did not stop the vandalism, then ignored requests to return forward and report the incident.”

Firefighters William W. Bryson, Kevin Meizoso, David Rivera, Justin Rumbaugh, Harold Santana and Alejandro Sese had been fired Wednesday. Bryson is the son of former Miami hearth chief William W. “Shorty” Bryson, reports Miami Local 10.

One different 5 workers keep beneath investigation and are subject to attainable self-discipline.

On Thursday, after the city launched the images of the six fired firefighters, it obtained an e-mail from an authorized skilled representing Miami’s hearth union, warning that the city may have set itself up for a lawsuit.

“The discharge of these footage, which now appear in numerous media opinions along with opinions on the net, is inconsistent with the Metropolis’s approved obligation to consider the underlying aim of the statute, and may subject the Metropolis to potential civil obligation for the unwarranted disclosure of public knowledge,” authorized skilled Osnat Okay. Rind wrote. “The Union requests that you just cease and desist on this regard.”

The city then clearly tried to cowl its arse nevertheless that cat was already out of the bag.